MANHATTAN (CN) — Four New Yorkers sued the state and its elections board Monday, claiming the New York congressional map drowns out Black and Latino votes in Staten Island and part of Brooklyn.
The plaintiffs claim the boundaries of New York’s 11th Congressional District, which despite featuring regular growth of Black and Latino populations over the past four decades, has “not translate[d] to increased political influence at the federal level.”
“CD-11’s antiquated boundaries instead confine Staten Island’s growing Black and Latino communities in a district where they are routinely and systematically unable to influence elections for their representative of choice, despite the existence of strong racially polarized voting and a history of racial discrimination and segregation on Staten Island,” the plaintiffs claim in a 29-page lawsuit, filed in New York County Supreme Court…